Page 2B THETHE TOWNS TOWNS COUNTY COUNTY HERALD HERALD August August 7, 2019 7, 2019 Towns County Sports Towns County’s Leader In Sports ooolgofk[gmflq`]jYd\f]lÛÝÛ<¤eYadÛl[`]jYd\³oaf\klj]Yef]l Football: Indians don pads for first ever NASCAR 2019 ‘Midnight Madness’ scrimmage game By Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter By Chad Stack a week in June, with offseason on some defensive plays and Towns County Herald training ramping up in July offensive plays during a light Elliott Gets Impressive Win At The Glen Staff Writer as they started getting in the scrimmage. Watkins Glen, NY - playbook. After a two-hour prac- Chase Elliott put on an impres- On Thursday, July 25, tice, the team broke down sive driving show in Sunday’s The Boys in Blue took to the Indians began camp, prac- with Coach Roquemore and Cup Series road course race, the field Thursday, Aug. 1, at ticing for five days with just the other coaches and headed leading 80 of the 90 laps. He 12:01 a.m. for their first pad- helmets on before being able into the locker room for a won both stages of the race ded practice and scrimmage to go in full pads. light snack. and pretty much dominated the under new Indian Head Foot- All 22 current Indian “I was excited to entire event. It was his second ball Coach Jason Roquemore. football players arrived last see them with pads on,” win of the season and second Roquemore comes to Wednesday afternoon to have consecutive victory at The Roquemore said. “They were Glen. Towns County following a a team dinner, after which the physical, and that’s what we “The car was fast,” said seven-year stint as the head boys spent time bonding and need. That was our first prac- Elliott, who started on the pole. coach for Johnson High School getting to know each other tice with pads on, and we still “We had a good day on pit road in Gainesville. better. have a lot more work to do.” and things turned out in our fa- The Indians have been At 11 p.m., the team Next up after last vor. practicing for two months, but gathered in the locker room to week’s “Midnight Madness” “What an afternoon this the Georgia High School As- suit up for a much-anticipated game, the Indians will travel was. I want to thank all my sociation prohibits full-contact practice with pads. to Lumpkin County for a friends, fans and other people padded practices until Aug. 1 Just after midnight, the pre-season scrimmage on that have gotten me to this each year. Indians took to the outfield of Friday, Aug. 16, starting at point.” Schools all over the state the baseball field in front of 7:30 p.m. Runner-up Martin Truex Elliott Gets Impressive Win At The Glen open pre-season play with fans who came out to see the And the Boys in Blue Jr. chased Elliott for the last last. intense right now. The level he a midnight scrimmage, and team’s new look. will host their season opener half of the race, but was nev- Christopher Bell, Justin is trying to perform, the level for the first time, the Indians They lined up for a short under the lights at Frank Mc- er able to get close enough to Allgaier, Ryan Blaney, Tyler we know the team needs to per- joined in on the action early stretch before they broke down Clure Memorial Stadium on make a pass. On the last lap, all Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Cole form is all there. We just have Thursday morning. into individual drills, and then their brand new $1 million he could do was watch Elliott Custer, Michael Annett, Noah to execute it properly.” Roquemore has had two the excitement came as the turf field when they take on take the checkered flag ahead Gragson, and Ryan Preece were Meanwhile Tony Stewart months to work with his team sounds of pads popping and arch-rival Yellowjackets from of him for the second time in the remaining top-10 finishers. is back in the news for his tem- and really likes what he sees – helmets hitting started. Hayesville, North Carolina, two years. Top-10 leaders after 20 per. A video posted by TMZ the Indians started offseason Shortly after a few hit- on Friday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 “He did an excellent job,” of 33: 1. Reddick-889, 2. Bell- sports, show Stewart punch- workouts meeting three days ting drills, the Indians worked p.m. said Truex. “We were fast but 859, 3. Custer-790, 4. Allgaier- ing a fan that harassed him at couldn’t get a run on him when 742, 5. Cindric-698, 6. Bris- a sprint car race in Jackson, we needed it. It was a good race coe-663, 7. Gragson-661, 8. Minn., the weekend of July 27. and good finish, but you never Annett-629, 9. Haley-627, 10. Stewart can be seen chasing enjoy finishing second. We did Nemechek-605. after the race fan once the two real good and we’ll keep on Here are the top-10 fin- have a heated exchange. working, because there’s still a ishers of last week’s NASCAR The incident may not lot of races left.” Truck Series race held at El- have been all Stewart’s fault. Denny Hamlin was third. dora Speedway on Thursday, It seems his sprint car lost an He came in second to Elliott in Aug. 1: 1. Stewart Friesen, 2. engine before the night’s rac- Stage 1, but never had the speed Sheldon Creed, 3. Grant En- ing was over, and Stewart went or car to match the winner. “We finger, 4. Mike Martar, 5. Todd over to sign autographs. That’s needed just a little more,” said Gilliland, 6. Christian Eckes, when the fan started heckling Hamlin. “We could handle all 7. Chase Briscoe, 8. Tyler Dip- him. Stewart gave him the fin- the turns, but we lacked the ple, 9. Tyler Ankrum, 10. Matt ger first, then after more insults, speed to overtake him on the Crafton. Stewart punched him. straights.” Top-10 leaders after Incidents like this one Erik Jones was fourth, 15 of 23: 1. Enfinger-622, 2. limit his ability to be more ef- while Ryan Blaney came in Crafton-570, 3. Friesen-567, fective in racing, but some- fifth. 4. Moffitt-564, 5. Rhodes-507, times you just gotta do what Matt DiBenedetto fin- 6. H. Burton-506, 7. Gilliland- you gotta do. ished sixth for his fourth top-10 473, 8. Creed-450, 9. Hill-431, Racing Joke: Kurt and of the season. “It was another 10. Sauter-418. his girlfriend are attending a good run for us,” said DiBene- JOHNSON CHANGES party with some local folks detto. “Our cars keep getting CREW CHIEF, AGAIN from the Methodist church at a better and better. I think if we For the second time this private countryside resort. Kurt can keep on running like this, season Jimmie Johnson has a and his friend set off to explore we will move to Victory Lane new crew chief. Since 2002, the area, and presently they one day.” Chad Knaus was Johnson’s top came upon an old bridge that Kevin Harvick, Kyle man. But after a dismal 2018 crossed a quiet pond. Larson, Brad Keselowski, and season, the Hendrick Motor- Unfortunately, they Kurt Busch were the remaining sports driver switched to Kevin didn’t notice a sign declaring top-10 finishers. Meendering for the 2019 sea- the bridge to be unsafe. As they Kyle Busch encountered son. After 21 races, Meender- crossed it, the caretaker came problems on the second lap ing is out and former race en- running after them. “Hey! You when he spun in Turn 1 while gineer Cliff Daniels is atop the there! Get off that bridge!” he battling William Byron. The pit box. shouted. two retaliated against each oth- The explanation was sim- “It’s all right,” said Kurt, er as Busch bumped Byron’s ple for Johnson, who is 17th in “We are in this resort with No. 24 through the grass just points and 12 points behind the permission. We’re part of the before the end of Stage 1. playoff cut line with five races Methodist group.” During lap 61 Busch to go in the regular season. “I’m not worried about tangled with Bubba Wallace. “We have to act now that,” replied the caretaker. He banged into the side of Wal- is the bottom line,” Johnson “But if you don’t get off that lace’s No. 43, then shoved his said. “We don’t have any time bridge, you’ll all be Baptists.” way past Wallace. Later, Wal- to waste. We’re always trying Weekend Racing: The lace spun Busch’s No. 18 Toy- to figure out how to make our Cup and Truck teams will be ota in Turn 1, bringing out a team better. What’s tricky is at the 2-mile Michigan Inter- caution. Despite all the beating, when it boils down to people national Speedway while the banging, and shoving, Busch and needing to make a change. Xfinity teams are at Mid Ohio still managed to finish 11th. It’s never easy. It’s never fun.” Sports Car Course, a road Top-10 leaders after 22 Johnson, who turns 44 in course auto racing facility lo- of 36; 1. Kyle Busch-851, 2. September, has 83 career victo- cated just outside Lexington, Logano-838, 3. Harvick-777, ries but none since June 2017 at Ohio. 4. Hamlin-771, 5. Truex-753, Dover and is mired in easily the Sat, Aug. 10; Truck Se- Under the direction of first-year head coach Jason Roquemore, the Towns County Indians football 6. Keselowski-728, 7. Kurt longest losing streak of his ca- ries race 16 of 23; Starting time: team hit the field in full pads at last week’s Midnight Madness Scrimmage game. Photos by Lowell Busch-679, 8. Elliott-676, 9. 1 PM ET; TV: FoxSports1. Nicholson and Chad Stack. reer. He has just three top-five Almirola-640, 10. Blaney-633. finishes this season and eight Sat, Aug. 10; Xfinity CINDRIC GETS top-10’s. Series race 21 of 33; Starting FIRST XFINITY WIN This season isn’t the time: 3 PM ET; TV: NBCSN. Austin Cindric held off first time Johnson and Daniels Sun, Aug. 11; Cup Series AJ Allmendinger at Watkins have worked together. Daniels race 22 of 36; Starting time: 3 Glen for the first Xfinity Series played a role in Johnson’s re- PM ET; TV: NBCSN. win of his career. Allmend- cord-tying championship sea- Racing Trivia Ques- inger’s car failed the post-race son in 2016 as an engineer for tion: Which NASCAR series inspection and he was placed then-crew chief Chad Knaus. does Brendan Gaughan drive While Daniels has no pri- in? or experience as a crew chief, Last Week’s Question: VFW Golf it’s the instant connection with Which Cup team does Ryan the 31-year-old that invigorates Blaney drive for? He drives the League results Johnson in his quest for an No. 12 Ford for Penske Rac- Last week’s league com- eighth title. ing. petition at Chatuge Shores Golf “Coming back and being Gerald Hodges is a Course was fierce but the team ingrained with the team and syndicated NASCAR writer lead by Ray Ide prevailed by those levels of communication, and author. His books may be scoring a 65 which is 7 strokes we did in a lot of ways pick up viewed online and ordered at under par. Teammates contrib- where they left off,” Daniels Amazon.com. You may con- uting to the win were Chuck said. “In some new ways — tact him by e-mail at: hodges@ Lehman and Gary Jones. Con- and I’ve commented to him race500.com gratulations! T(Aug7,G1)SH several times — his fire is so BACK TO SCHOOLS SALES EVENT GET UP TO GET THE WORKS® AND GET A GET THE WORKS® AND PURCHASE ANY SET OF $15 REBATE BY PURCHASE ANY SET OF $70 REBATE MOTORCRAFT® WIPER BLADES MOTORCRAFT® CABIN AIR FILTER by mail when you buy MAIL ON ANY GET $10 REBATE by mail MOTORCRAFT® GET $10 REBATE by mail Four Select Tires /ÀiÊ,Ì>ÌÊ>`Ê*ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊ iVÊUÊÌiÀÊ iV /ÀiÊ,Ì>ÌÊ>`Ê*ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊ iVÊUÊÌiÀÊ iV On these name brands: Goodyear, Dunlop, À>iÊëiVÌÊUÊ6i ViÊ iVÕ« BRAKE À>iÊëiVÌÊUÊ6i ViÊ iVÕ« Michelin,® BFGoodrich, General Tire, Pirelli, Õ`Ê/«"vvÊUÊ >ÌÌiÀÞÊ/iÃÌ Õ`Ê/«"vvÊUÊ >ÌÌiÀÞÊ/iÃÌ ® Bridgestone, Firestone, Yokohama,® Nitto® Belts and Hoses Check SERVICE Belts and Hoses Check *Dealer-installed retail purchases only. Limit one redemption per *Dealer-installed retail purchases only. Up to six quarts of Motorcraft *Retail purchases only. Dealer-installed Motorcraft or Omnicraft™ *Dealer-installed retail purchases only. Up to six quarts of Motorcraft customer. Offer valid 7/01/19 to 8/31/19. Submit rebate by 9/30/19 Synthetic Blend oil and Motorcraft or Omnicraft™ oil filter. Offer valid brake pads or shoes. Exclusions apply. Taxes extra. Limit one $15 Synthetic Blend oil and Motorcraft or Omnicraft™ oil filter. Offer valid by mail-in rebate form or online at fordowner.com. Tire rebate by 8/01/19 to 9/30/19. Submit rebate by 10/31/19 by mail-in rebate form or brake rebate redemption per axle. Offer valid 7/01/19 to 8/31/19. 8/01/19 to 9/30/19. Submit rebate by 10/31/19 by mail-in rebate form or prepaid debit card. Cannot be combined with any other tire manu- online at fordowner.com. Cannot be combined with any other Ford Ser- Submit rebate by 9/30/19 by mail-in rebate form or online at fordown- online at fordowner.com. Cannot be combined with any other Ford Ser- facturer-sponsored rebate/offer. See participating U.S. dealership for vice rebate/offer. Rebate by prepaid debit card. See participating U.S. er.com. Rebate by prepaid debit card. See participating U.S. dealer- vice rebate/offer. Rebate by prepaid debit card. See participating U.S. vehicle applications and rebate details through 8/31/19. dealership for vehicle applications and rebate details through 9/30/19. ship for vehicle applications and rebate details through 8/31/19. dealership for vehicle applications and rebate details through 9/30/19.
OUR SERVICE DEPARTMENT 2450 W US Hwy 64, Murphy, North Carolina 28906 Phone: 828-837-2121 IS NOW OPEN UNTIL 4 PM View our Inventory Online at www.kingfordsales.com ON SATURDAYS! Where you are treated like Royalty!